Chipping At The Mt. Everest Of Debt

Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, this has not been an auspicious beginning for the new era of black ink.

After 30 years of deficits, at the very first whiff of a federal budget surplus, you spent nearly a third of it--$20 billion--on all sorts of "emergency" goodies. This is not a good sign.

The problem is that spending surplus money is like breathing air to you politicians. It's what you do, almost automatically, as if it were an irresistible impulse. It gives you something to write home about. "See what I got for you," you crow to your constituents in all those election ads.

Remember that you promised to "fix Social Security first." That's an admirable goal; we'd appreciate it if you'd tackle that first thing come January.

Beyond that, you know in your heart of hearts what you should be doing with that surplus: You should begin chipping away at the monumental national debt. Remember the national debt? Surplus notwithstanding, it's still there and growing, folks. More than $5.5 trillion of it, increasing at an average of $268 million a day since Oct. 1, 1997.

In fiscal 1998, servicing the national debt--this is akin to making the minimum monthly payment on your credit card bill--cost $363.8 billion. Interest on the national debt over the last ten years has totaled $3.3 trillion.

It may never be possible to totally eliminate the debt, which has always been there--ballooning during times of wars or panic, generally subsiding somewhat in peacetime. It all but disappeared by 1835 as the debt from the War of 1812 was steadily paid down. Unfortunately, nothing like that has occurred since then. The debt was cut to $16 billion from $27 billion in the Roaring '20s, but has pretty much been rising steadily ever since.

It would take decades to really make a dent in this Mt. Everest of red ink, so if all of you currently on Capitol Hill actually worked up the gumption to do the right thing, the political payback would accrue to your successors in the next millennium.

We understand that's a hard sell. Much like flossing and dieting, it requires you to forego immediate gratification for the long-term benefit of the nation. But imagine how good that would make you feel.